Given the widespread availability and usage of the internet by consumers, many businesses have become interested in being able to effectively monitor the content and commentary provided by such consumers. Interactive websites such as social networks and blogs provide a wealth of useful information that can be advantageously used by a business.
It is possible to monitor the content of social media sites to identify the ranges of topics that are being commented about by users on the sites. By knowing about and understanding these topics, many businesses can then act upon that information to increase sales and revenue. It would be very desirable to allow the businesses to stay informed of actionable social networking content, for example, to identify potential customers and possible sales leads or to identify problematic situations that may require immediate involvement of customer service personnel.
For example, consider a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) application, which is designed to facilitate the ability of a business to create, develop, and build relationships with its customers or potential customers. It would be very desirable to allow the business CRM application to stay informed of actionable social networking content, for example, to identify potential customers and possible sales leads.
As another example, brand managers are often interested in monitoring commentary on the internet regarding their brands or competitors' brands. Brand managers may read the commentary to gauge interest in their marketing materials, receive feedback regarding their products, or take further action regarding any postings that warrant some type of follow-up response.
Embodiments of the present invention provide a system, method, and computer program product for allowing an entity to access social media data, and to perform theme analysis upon that data to identify and create topics with regards to that data. The invention is capable of accessing data across multiple types of internet-based sources of social data and commentary. A user interface is provided that allows the user to view and interact with data and control the process/mechanism for creating topics. The topic creation process can be facilitated and automated using a volatility index.
Other additional objects, features, and advantages of the invention are described in the detailed description, figures, and claims.